In teleconferencing, live information is exchanged among meeting participants that are in any number of different geographic locations remote from one another but linked by a telecommunications system. Teleconferencing thus provides an alternative to people who need to meet and communicate in real-time, but cannot be geographically in the same place for reasons of distance, cost, practicality, etc. Participants in a teleconference meeting usually meet together for a specific task at a specific time.
For example, in some types of teleconference meetings, each participant may have access to a microphone to transmit his or her voice to other participants in the teleconference meeting and an audio speaker to hear the voices of other participants in the teleconference. Such a teleconference can be conducted by telephone. In more sophisticated examples, screens and cameras can also be used to share images or electronic data among participants in the teleconference.
In some cases, participants join and participate in a teleconference meeting by dialing into a central conferencing service by telephone. In other types of teleconference meetings, the participants may exchange data by mutual connections to a teleconference server via a computer network, such as the Internet.
In addition to the voice and, in some cases, video that is part of a teleconference, some teleconference services provide further data to participants. Such data can include additional forms of communication (e.g. a framework for electronic chatting among participants) and/or information regarding other participants in the teleconference, such as the time at which each participant enters the teleconference meeting. Due to the increasing importance of teleconferences to teams and business relationships that operate long-distance, features that enhance the teleconference experience or teleconferencing efficiency are of significant value.